B2
Hood River News, Saturday, June 6, 2015
Elks announce May ‘Students of the Month’
Madison Graham and Jessie Karr, both
students at Hood River Valley High School,
were chosen as Students of the Month for
May by the Hood River Elks Lodge No. 1507
and were each presented with a check for
$100. They joined 16 other winning students
in the running for the annual Student of the
Year Awards, held May 31.
Madison Graham maintains a 3.8 GPA at
Hood River Valley High School and is a mem-
ber of several organizations: She the num-
ber one singles player in
tennis; she runs Cross
Country; she is a member
of the National Honor Soci-
ety, which helps with local
non-profits; she is a cheer-
leader; she is Vice Presi-
dent of the French Club
and was a 4-H counselor in
Tri-County Leadership
MADISON
Camp; she was State Am-
bassador planning state-
GRAHAM
wide 4-H events, participat-
ing in monthly conference calls, and volun-
teering at the Oregon State Fair; she was a
delegate to National 4-H Congress; she found-
ed the Change Club, where she helped design
T-shirts, gave club mission to Booster Club,
FINALS
Continued from Page B1
hits and Cockburn just four.
Both teams were able to ad-
vance as far as third base
midway through the game,
but that was about it.
In the seventh inning, both
teams were hoping to put the
game in the books, but once
again, neither team could
put up a run. Ward shut
down Pendleton’s offense,
fanning one batter for the
second out of the inning, and
then fielding a hard ground
ball that was heading down
the third base line, turning
around and throwing the ball
off-balance to Montana Kura-
hara at first for the third out.
“Ryan Ward, that play he
made over here (at the third
base line), falling away, mak-
ing that throw — that’s just
stuff you can’t teach. He’s
such a good athlete,” Harjo
said.
In the bottom of the sev-
enth, HRV was able to get
catcher Adam Cameron on
first and left fielder Riley
Van Hoose on second due to a
walk and hit pitch, respec-
tively, but again, Pendleton’s
defense went to work, and
caught a line drive from des-
ignated hitter Chase Lariza
and put short stop Skyler
Hunter out at first to send
the game into extra innings.
The Eagles survived a
scare in the top of the eighth,
when, with no outs and a
runner on first, Pendleton’s
Wyatt Morris crushed one to
center field as runner Jack
Peterson rounded second,
then third and began sprint-
ing for him. In the outfield,
LAX
Continued from Page B1
of their cage.”
Luchsinger said the de-
fense started to put more
pressure on Canby’s players,
forcing turnovers. HRV’s at-
tack took control of the
game, with two quick goals
from Levi Glass and two
more Bruce Ostler to give
HRV a 14-10 lead. T he
Cougars continued to get
some shots, but HRV net-
minder Mikey Hall wouldn’t
let any go through, making
12 saves on 30 shots.
“It went back and forth
there
for
a
while,”
Luchsinger said. “In reality,
that game could’ve gone ei-
ther way. I think guys did a
great job not letting it get to
their heads.”
Additionally, the boys had
some added motivation play-
ing at their practice site at
Westside Elementary, which
was transformed into a well-
groomed lacrosse field since
the high school facilities
were unavailable due to
graduation preparations.
“Once the game started I
didn’t even notice the differ-
ence. I think guys went out
and
played
hard,”
Luchsinger said. “I think
guys were excited to play at
Westside. That’s where we
practice, that’s where the
designated leadership positions, founded a
club mentor, chose organizations to benefit
from clubs profits and led weekly meetings;
and she has participated in ballet, modern,
jazz and hula at the Columbia Gorge Dance
Academy, in which she danced the Nutcrack-
er ballet to benefit FISH food bank. Madison
is a lifeguard at the HR Aquatic Center and
is currently working as a Windsurf Instruc-
tor for Big Winds.
Madison’s community service includes:
FISH Food Bank collecting cans, sorting food
into bags, and distributing to the needy; she
volunteered with Heart of Hospice, visiting
retirement centers, sang songs for the elder-
ly, served cookies to patients and helped re-
cruit members at club fair; she volunteered
at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital
in the Family Birth Center and the Emer-
gency Room, filing papers, greeting patients,
and organizing care folders; she helped The
Next Door, Inc. set up for events at Harvest
Fest; she is the Nursery Service Leader at
the Hood River Alliance Church; she orga-
nized monthly community service projects
for children to participate in and was on the
planning committee for 4-H Camp; and spent
numerous hours on Remember Nhu, volun-
teering as an intern at children’s home in
Thailand, recruiting a team of volunteers to
serve at the banquet to benefit a new chil-
dren’s home.
Madison is the daughter of Pat and Amy
Graham and she plans to attend University
of Arizona School of Engineering majoring
in Bio-Medical Engineering.
■
Jessie Karr is the daughter of Francie
Karr and maintains a 4.0 GPA also at Hood
River Valley High School. She is a three sport
athlete, playing basketball, volleyball and
softball since 2011. She was basketball co-
captain in 2012, Basketball Eagle Award win-
ner in 2012 and named MVP in 2013; she was
co-captain of the volleyball team in 2014; and
softball co-captain in 2012; Softball Eagle
Award winner in 2012 and All District/All-
State Softball DP in 2014; and Captains Coun-
cil Representative in 2015. Jessie is a member
of Challenge Day, challenging everyone to ac-
cept diversity, and the National Honor Soci-
ety.
Jessie’s community service includes the
following: acted as a mentor and counselor
for new camp counselors and taught lessons
to the sixth grade students about environ-
mental science for Wy’East Outdoor School;
instructed recreational games and oversaw
4-6 graders at Softball Kids Night; was a ref-
eree for Community Ed instructing elemen-
tary and middle school students in the fun-
damentals of basketball and volleyball; did
fundraisers for the Hood River Valley Soft-
ball program; created toy bags for families in
need for Holiday Toy Baskets; helped pass
out boxes of food and bags of gifts to families
in need for Community Food and Gift Bas-
kets Program, and packaged food boxes for
those in need over the winter holidays; par-
ticipated in the Hood River
County Fair by giving out
contestant numbers and
keeping books for next
year’s entries; painted
walls for the pediatric side
of the building for Mid-Co-
lumbia Medical Center
Family Medicine; and
scanned written insurance
JESSIE
records to digital ones for
Columbia Gorge Family
KARR
Medical and Columbia
Gorge Family Sports Physical Clinic.
Jessie plans to attend the University of
Portland in the fall majoring in Biology.
centerfielder Dallas Buckley
fielded the line drive, tossed
it to Walker at second, who
then hurled it to a frantic
Cameron at home, who was
calling for the ball. With
about a second to spare,
Cameron caught the ball and
wheeled around in time to
fill Peterson’s face with
glove, putting him out before
he could reach the plate,
which drew raucous whoops
and applause from the HRV
bleachers.
With HRV’s defense finish-
ing up the inning with two
quick putouts and neither
team able to score, Harjo said
he was hoping for “a little bit
of a wrinkle, for a little bit of
luck” to put the team over
the top. And they got it. After
hitting Walker with a pitch
to put him on first, Cockburn
tried to field a bunt hit by
Ward, and then overthrew to
Pendleton’s first baseman by
a large margin, allowing
Walker to advance to third.
The next play, Cockburn in-
tentionally walked HRV
third baseman Kellan Duffy,
who nearly hit one out of the
park earlier in the game.
With bases loaded and no
outs, Harvey stepped up to
the plate. After a 3-1 count,
Harvey hit a beautiful line
drive to an empty section of
right field, allowing Walker
to come home, who slid into
the plate, not out of necessi-
ty, but out of pure jubilation
as HRV’s bench emptied to
greet him.
“You don’t want to lose,
you don’t want to lose to the
team on the other side of the
field,” Harjo said of how
HRV came away with a win
against a team that had seen
them so many times this sea-
son. “It’s like a chess match,
really, that’s what it comes
down to. If you don’t execute
the small game, and if you
don’t do any part of the
game, you’re not going to
score runs, because every-
body knows everybody… We
just happen to be the team
that executed at the right
time and we came up big.”
HRV now turns its atten-
tion to the Liberty Falcons,
one of the best teams in the
state, who earned their berth
at the finals after grinding
out a 2-1 victory over No. 4
Summit that went to an in-
credible 14 innings. Liberty
is ranked No. 1 overall in 5A
and is also ranked No. 1 on
defense, with just 51 runs al-
lowed this season (1.82 runs
per game). The Falcons are
also hot at the plate, scoring
the fifth-most runs in 5A
(213, or 7.6 runs per game).
However, as readers un-
doubtedly know, HRV is also
great at defense, ranked
fourth in fewest runs allowed
(98 total runs, 3.38 runs per
game). On offense, HRV is
ranked 11th in runs scored
(173 total, 5.97 runs per
game). The two teams have
not played each other at all
this season; the last time
they played, three years ago,
the Eagles defeated the Fal-
cons, 9-0, in a play-in game,
said Harjo.
Despite Liberty’s scoring
prowess and the team’s No. 1
ranking, Harjo said the Fal-
cons will “have to put togeth-
er a pretty good game plan to
beat Ryan Ward,” and relish-
es the chance at unseating
the higher-seeded opponent.
“In my opinion, I’d rather
be an underdog than the fa-
vorite,” he said.
Many of the players on HRV’s varsity have played together for years... and against the same opponents
for just as long. Ryan Ward’s father, Doug Ward, offered us some interesting history:
The current 2015 Hood River varsity roster has eight players who were also on the 2009 Little League
All Star team that won the State title as 11 year olds (Montana Kurahara, Kam Walker, Skyler Hunter,
Kellan Duffy, Andrew Roberts, Dallas Buckley, Chase Lariza, Ryan Ward).
The same group of kids (plus Adam Cameron) also went on to place second in the 2010 State tour-
nament the following year as 12 year olds. Seven of the starters on this year’s varsity team also start-
ed on the 2010 team (Kurahara, Walker, Hunter, Duffy, Buckley, Lariza, Ward, Cameron).
The match-up in the 2010 Little League semi-final was Hood River and Pendleton. The starting pitch-
ers: Ryan Ward and Quinn Cockburn. Ward gave up a first inning home run to Cockburn, but Hood
River prevailed by scoring four runs in the top of the sixth inning to win 4-3.
The starting pitcher in the 2010 Championship game against Murryhill: Kam Walker.
We looked through the archives and were able to find photos of Dallas Buckley and Skyler Hunter
(above) playing in the 2009 Little League title game, which saw Maritime defeat the Elks, 2-0. Buck-
ley was on Maritime, and Hunter was on the Elks, but are teammates today, of course.
blood sweat tears are and I
think guys were like,
‘There’s no way they’re
going to beat us on that
field.’”
The game ball once again
went to Brown, who racked
up six goals. Luchsinger said
Glass also had a huge impact
on the game, leading the
team with an impressive six
assists, as well as three goals.
Other scorers for HRV in-
cluded Cramer (4), Ostler (4),
Lebsack (1), and defenseman
Alex Buschaver (1).
Heading into the Cascade
Cup finals, HRV will play a
team that Luchsinger said
the Eagles have never faced
in his four years on the
team’s coaching staff. He
said T hursday mor ning
there wasn’t much he could
Athlete of the Week
File photos by Ben McCarty; 2015 photos by Ben Mitchell
THEN AND NOW
do to prepare specifically for
LaSalle, so the HRV quad
will just have to be ready for
whatever its opponents
bring.
“We’re playing the best
ball of the season now. We’re
going to just do what we need
H a s y o u r h e a r i n g b e c o m e j u s t a l i t t l e
Up to
Torsenn Brown
HRV boys lacrosse
Attack Torsenn Brown had a team-high
six goals, helping HRV beat the Canby
Cougars, 19-10, and advance to the
Cascade Cup final.
The Athlete of the Week will receive a large
pizza with 2 toppings from Papa Murphy’s.
Congratulations to our winner 6-06-15.
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to do. We’re going to go out
and have some fun practices
and go out and play HRV
ball,” he said.
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